


In the Heart of the Sea (There Is Silence)

by sphinxofthenile



Category: In the Heart of the Sea (2015)
Genre: Implied Relationships, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-27
Updated: 2018-07-27
Packaged: 2019-06-17 02:39:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15451539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sphinxofthenile/pseuds/sphinxofthenile
Summary: Why waste water on a dead man?





	In the Heart of the Sea (There Is Silence)

**Author's Note:**

> I, umm, wrote this back in 2016 and then completely forgot about it. Then I stumbled upon the AO3 section (almost by accident), saw its deplorable lack of this pairing and went rummaging through my folders. Et voila. Welcome to rare pair hell, grab a cookie from the tray and make yourself comfortable.

_"Why waste water on a dead man?"_

The world tilts around Tom Nickerson, lurches back into equilibrium with a sickening twist of his stomach as he stares at the unrepentant set of Coffin's mouth.

It resonates through them all like a slap. The cruel truth in the question and the shame of it. The silence that follows is the crescendo of their guilt. An imprint of red that stays beneath their skin.

Desperate. Drained. 

_Why waste water on a dead man?_

"Them two men had known each other, sailed together since childhood. Now tell me, could you sit there and watch your own brother die?" Chappel tries, but it is weak, so weak. Even to his own ears. Maybe especially to his own ears.

The silence is deafening. Condemning.

Tom looks at Chase, his broad hands framing Joy's face, his bright blue eyes so deep and haunted, and realizes what a blind fool he had been.

It's in the way their eyes met across the deck. In the way the two of them seemed to have entire conversations without uttering a word. In the way Joy smiled at Pollard, knowing and unafraid, as he cautioned him about asking too many questions.

It was right before his eyes all along, he just couldn't see it. But now, he _knows_. 

It's in the way no one wants to see the wound but Chase. In the way his hands grab Joy, the look in his eyes as he takes in the dark red blood caked in sun-bleached hair, the force of his voice as he speaks, demands the truth from him.

"He is good," Chase eventually says, and Tom so wants to believe him.

But Chase is lying, lying, _lying_.

The silence is not so much deafening at this point as suffocating him with a grip that tastes faintly of bile and whale oil as he swallows. If he is being honest with himself, he would much rather be back in the whale's head.

But under the merciless heat of the sun, there is only silence.


End file.
